I am so freaking bored of Shadowbringer's story

[cougarel]

Yes, bad, bad community for pointing out something that the OP did and cries wolf on the forum because of the story he skipped.
Bad!

[Seoulstar]

You've done it now, OP. You actually went public and said something about FFXIV story that isn't positive.
You will now get eaten alive by this community.

...The comments so far are doing the exact opposite of this..

[Kahnom]

The only part that I feel boring is west-side Ahm Araeng but the rest is awesome.

[White_Wolf_X]

You've done it now, OP. You actually went public and said something about FFXIV story that isn't positive.
You will now get eaten alive by this community.

Saying the story is "boring" when OP skips what i guess is a large % of the dialog which makes up the story, in a story heavy game like ffxiv is .. well...

[cougarel]

...The comments so far are doing the exact opposite of this..

I think he didn't even read the comments tbh.

[Evergrey]

I think he didn't even read the comments tbh.

Well I did.
But seeing how people have been about topics about skipping story lately. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[cougarel]

Well I did.
But seeing how people have been about topics about skipping story lately. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Tbh i think the posts were for the skip potion and not Shb, but i might be wrong .

[NessaWyvern]

The only part that I feel boring is west-side Ahm Araeng but the rest is awesome.

I still liked the west side, there was a bit of tension in character dynamics there

[Daralii]

The only part that I feel boring is west-side Ahm Araeng but the rest is awesome.

There was definitely monotony at points, but the testing of character dynamics(Urianger/Thancred/Minfilia), Magnus's character arc, and the entire Thancred solo duty were amazing.

[Kaethra]

Some people prefer to read stories in books.
Some people prefer to watch movies at theater.
Some people prefer to play games as games.

Some like mixing, some don't.

<Spoilers will exist beyond this point>

Me personally I like to mix them... sparingly and on my own terms. My biggest complaint about FFXIV is the content lock behind MSQ. I don't believe content should be locked around story. Story should be enjoyed as a story. It can be immersion breaking to have a story stop, and have to play, and then stop and have to read or watch again. But then again, I've been playing video games since the 80s. Back then, much of the story in a game was in the manual. I read the manual of every game I played. But when I played a game, it was to play the game.

When I played Everquest and World of Warcraft (two universes with hundred times more story and lore than FFXIV, sorry they do, if not in their respective games). There was very little story within the actual game. You would see references to events, or little lore hooks. You would put these hooks together and read on wikis, or novels, or manuals, or other literature to see what was related to what. That felt way more engaging than simply being strung along by the nose.

So I can see why someone who comes to FFXIV would feel disjointed. Couple this with the fact that you have no say in how the story unfolds. We get the following dialogue choices:

"Alright lets do this!"
"meh, if I must"
"..."


Whichever you choose, may change the initial reaction to what your character responds with, but you're still going to move forward on a train track. You just get to choose whether its a window seat or an aisle one.

Now with that said, I did enjoy the Shadowbringers story. It was much better than Stormblood, and even an improvement over Heavensward. And I was able to enjoy it during a time where I was ready to read through some story. But I have a friend who has yet to do 71-80. They have the expansion. But even if I were to get them to 80, they could NOT do the content we wish to do together. They would need to go through the MSQ to catch up. I don't believe that should be the case.

They would like to see the story. But they would like to see it on their terms. There's no challenge to the MSQ. Its clicking through text boxes, traveling a few feet or a teleport to aetheryte to talk to the next person. Even the dungeons can simply go in as a DPS and let the Trust do all the work. Its just time. All it takes is time. Time spent mostly reading, and watching. Time spent reading and watching, when a person might simply wish to play the game.

And I get it, I already know the arguments. Its to slow us down, its so we don't get bored too fast, blah blah blah. Yeah those statements. Ridiculous.

Why? I did the MSQ, I beat Hades using a lightwarden light aether infused axe, and I know that Ascians are Tempered by the God-Primal Zodiark, I know the WoL/D maybe tempered by the God-Primal Hydaelen. And I know that Zenos committed regicide and sent Eldibrius scurrying with his tail between his legs. I read and watched everything. It took me 2 days to do that. I've been playing now for 18 days. Less than 10% of my time spent playing was on MSQ (those two days weren't all on MSQ, but on doing some other stuff too). If skipping the MSQ would make the game too quick and make me bored.. wouldn't that have happened already?

And if it did, its only keeping me for 2 extra days. But that's irrelevant. I'm not bored yet. I've got expert dungeons to perfect. I've got classes to level. And I've got extremes to do. I've got an entire game's expansion to play through, and we haven't even had our first content patch yet.

MSQ isn't for everyone. Some just want to play the game, the game itself is great. Best dungeons of any MMORPG right now. Most varied, most diverse, most quality and quantity at that. But most importantly. Everyone ought to be able to play the game they wish to do. They ought to enjoy the story on their terms. I agree that we must all face the same challenges. Its only just. But clicking a text box and watching animation isn't a challenge. Its just time spent. And we ought to spend the time doing what we like to do.